Sky Adds 46,000 Broadband Customers In Q3

Steve McCaskill is editor of TechWeekEurope and ChannelBiz. He joined
as a reporter in 2011 and covers all areas of IT, with a particular interest in telecommunications, mobile and networking, along with sports technology.

In total, Sky added 70,000 customers during the third quarter, boosting its total user base to 12.4 million across UK and Ireland. Over the past year it has added 476,000 new subscribers to its telephone, broadband and television services, adding to a grand total of 12.4 million.

Sky broadband

UK and Irish revenues rose by six percent to £6.2 billion over the past nine months, contributing significantly to the wider group’s turnover of £8.72 billion. Sky’s UK and Ireland business registered a £1.2 billion operating profit over the same period, a rise of 15 percent, with the Sky Group delivering £1.14 billion – an increase of 12 percent.

CEO Jeremy Darroch attributed the UK growth to Sky’s investment in content, new services such as Sky Q and improved customer service.

“It’s been another strong quarter for Sky,” he said. “Our strategy to broaden our business, expanding into new markets and customer segments, has delivered further excellent financial results with revenue up 5% and a double digit growth in profit.”

Sky’s next expansion will be into mobile, allowing it to offer quad-play packages to customers. It already has a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement with O2, with a view to launching later this year and it has been suggested that a merged O2-Three would be willing to offer Sky a fifth of the capacity of the combined network in a bid to get it past EU regulators.

It is understood Sky would be interested in such a proposal and believes the existence of three larger networks than two large, two small, would be a better situation for MVNO operators.